Home Videos on your TV

I posted before my goal of having all my home videos available for viewing on my HDTV in the living room.  The XBOX hasn’t quite delivered.  Lo and behold I recently gave my PS3 another try and it does circles around the XBOX! I can view all my MPEG2 video using the free TVersity Media Server application running on my PC.  I can now get rid of all the lower quality .MP4 files I created for the XBOX.  Maybe the XBOX will one day be updated to allow it to stream the same MPEG2 files; or perhaps it would work today if I knew how to set it up better.  I wonder if the iPad with iTunes running on my PC will be able to stream my video; if it can it will probably be limited to what formats it will stream (QuickTime).

I ran into the following error message on the PS3 while trying to connect to TVersity:

Media Server Error: DLNA Protocol Error (501) has occurred.

This thread lead me to this solution on the TVersity site.

The iPad is here

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I want one.   I did not run out and buy an iPhone.  I never thought it was worth the price of the monthly cell + data plan.  For sometime now, I have been watching TV shows and movies on my MacBook Pro; Cassidy has too.  She is always borrowing it on weekends to catch up on the network shows she doesn’t have time during the week to watch.  We settle in, in our favorite place on the coach, or in our bedroom, put on some headphones and have a close-up immersible experience on the laptop.  So the iPad is in effect, our second “laptop” but in a form factor that is better tailored to that personal intimate experience on the coach.  It’s not a small laptop, it’s a big iPod Touch (oh, we have 3 of those in the house).  It does not run Mac desktop software, but instead runs iPod apps plus the software that comes on it.

A pleasant surprise was the price!  I feared it would start at $1000 but the WiFi-only model starts at $500 for the 8gig model, $600 for 16gig and $700 for 32gig.  It will be available in March. In April the Wi-Fi + 3G version comes out and will be priced $629, $729, and $829.  Again there’s that data plan for 3G which I feel I can live without.

Ascii Emoticons

I needed a mischievous emoticon so I looked for one on Google.

Thought I would post some here for future reference.  Emoticons you can type are referred to ascii emoticons as opposed to icons that are inserted in email or IM.

From  WindWeaver:

HAPPY, SMILING, LAUGHING
:-)     smiling; agreeing
:-D    laughing
|-)      hee hee
|-D    ho ho
:->     hey hey
;-)      so happy, I’m crying
:’-)     crying with joy
\~/     full glass; my glass is full

TEASING, MISCHIEVOUS
;-)      winking; just kidding
‘-)       winking; just kidding
;->     devilish wink
:*)      clowning
:-T      keeping a straight face

AFFIRMING, SUPPORTING
:^D    ”Great! I like it!”
8-]     ”Wow, maaan”
:-o     ”Wow!”
^5      high five
^        thumbs up
:]       Gleep, a friendly midget who wants
to befriend you
(::()::)   bandaid; offering help or support

UNHAPPY, SAD
:-(    frowning; boo hoo
:(      sad
:-<    really sad
:-c    really unhappy
:-C   really bummed
&-|   tearful
:’      crying
:’-(   crying and really sad
:-|     grim
:[      really down
:-[     pouting
\_/    "my glass is empty"

ANGRY, SARCASTIC
>:-<   angry
:-||      angry
:-@    screaming
:-V     shouting
:-r      sticking tongue out
>:-<   absolutely livid!!
:-,      smirk
:-P     nyahhhh!
:->     bitingly sarcastic
TRYING TO COMMUNICATE
:-&    tonguetied
:-S     incoherent
:-\      undecided
:- I     "hmmm..."
:-,      "hmmm "
:-#     "My lips are sealed"
:-X    "My lips are sealed"
:-Y     a quiet aside
:-"      pursing lips
:-W    speaking with forked tongue
:( )     can't stop talking

FEELING STUPID OR TIRED
:~/     mixed up
%-)    braindead
(:I      egghead
<:-I    dunce
=:-)    hosehead
:-]      smiling blockhead
:-[      un-smiling blockhead
|-O    yawning
|-I      asleep
:-6     exhausted; wipeout

SURPRISED, INCREDULOUS, SKEPTICAL
:>    What?
:@   What?
:Q    What?
:-o   "uhh oh!" OR surprise
;-)     sardonic incredulity
:O     shocked
8-|    eyes wide with surprise
:-/     skeptical
8-O  "Omigod!!"
:-C    just totally unbelieving
|-{    "Good Grief!" (Charlie Brown)

HUGS AND KISSES
: *      kisses
:-X     a big wet kiss!
:-x      kiss kiss
:-{}    blowing a kiss
[]        hugs
(( )):**    hugs and kisses
((((name))))   hug

MISCELLANEOUS
:-*      Oops!
:-I       indifferent
\-o      bored
:-P      tongue hanging out in anticipation
O :-)   angelic; being an angel (at heart, at least)

NEW  EMOTICONS (by Tracy Marks):
][       feeling separate
] [      separating
)  (     really separating
{ }     face-to-face
[ ]      wanting to hug
}xx    kisses
()       feeling in harmony; connecting
] ?     moving away and wondering about you?
[ ?     moving toward you and wondering about you?

From Yahoo Messenger 9:

A Personal Credit Crisis

This is a great article about someone that got in trouble financially.  Even someone that should have known better was not immune to the lure of easy credit.  Read his story here.

Google Map points of interest

Kleymeyer House

Donohoe Farm

Jane’s brother has a farm with a 13-acre lake.  We always enjoy a day out there when we visit her family in Dallas.

The farm is located east of Bonham, west of Paris in Fannin County.

Satellite Photo

Photos of the farm

Toddlers & Pom Poms

I attended Cassidy’s first cheer competition.  There were High School Teams all the way down to toddlers 5 years old. There is something fundamentally wrong with seeing a 7 year old with thick bright blue glittery eye shadow and thick bright red lipstick, a bow in her head, and no front teeth!

Fantastic place to catch movie trailers

Apple has trailers in HD up to 1080p.  They are gorgeous. Watch them in 720p on your computer.

Other HD Trailer sites: MovieFone, Yahoo Movies,

Raising Your Child to Be a Champion in Athletics, Arts and Academics

I may have to check out the book written by Wayne Bryan, father of the professional twin tennis doubles team.   Here is what the New York Times Magazine article of Aug 30, 2009 has to say about it:

which stresses, among other things, the importance for a parent of not stealing a child’s thunder. It reads as a manifesto for a sensitive and low-pressure form of hothousing. Wayne spells out very specifically how a parent should approach his child after a match. “First, let your child come to you . . . ,” he writes. “Remember, this is her gig, not yours. You say you want to share her glory? No! Let her friends go up to her and share her moment.” And win or lose, the script is the same: First question: Do you want water or Gatorade? Second question: Where do you want to get something to eat? Third question, if the child is 16 or older: Do you want to drive or should I? “It’s really that simple,” he writes. “If the child wants to talk about the match, you listen. But don’t critique. . . . Your role is to minimize pressure, not create it.”

I have to constantly remind myself to not push my kids in sports further than they want to go.  Cassidy has creative talents but David and Kristen have athletic talents that they are currently unmotivated to pursue and nurture.  Maybe something will click and one day they will actually ask ME to help them rather than the other way around.

Can Levi Buy an Xbox With His Own Money?

I enjoy reading Steve Yoder’s Wall Street Journal column that he writes with his son Issac and now also with Levi.  This morning the column addresses video consoles in the house.  The train on that one has left the station in our home.  We bought a classic XBOX when David was only 6!  I actually was not for it at the time but did not feel strong enough to put up  a fight.  We now own 2 XBOX 360s and a PS3.  No WII and I have no desire to get one, but I’ll probably lose that battle eventually.  The battle I’m fighting now is holding out on texting for our phones (Cassidy & David have cell phones) which I expect I will soon lose.  I feel the same way about texting as Steve feels about game consoles.    The way kids use texting (most of the time) is a huge waste of time and it teaches them to be less social.

Levi makes the argument that it is his money and Steve replies it is not about the money but about the idea of owning a console and deciding he doesn’t want that distraction in the home.  I think that is a reasonable reason not to own a console.  Levi brings up the fact that his older brother was allowed to keep a used Nintendo that didn’t work too well. Steve argues that he allowed it because it didn’t work consistently.  That’s not a very convincing argument.  Whether it worked at ALL or not, the message sent was that game consoles in the home are OK…then…but now they aren’t.

Game consoles are pure entertainment just like watching TV.  I happen to believe there is nothing wrong with mindless entertainment.   Just like ANYTHING, the problem comes in excessive use of any form of entertainment be it TV, drinking, computers, comic books, etc.  Yes it’s hard to constantly monitor and restrict activities like TV or game playing but nevertheless, I believe that’s what you need to do.

Do we do a good job of restricting TV/gaming in our home?  Not good enough.  Which is why even though we choose to allow these “distractions” in our home, I wouldn’t condemn someones choice to disallow either of these activities in their home.  The only question I have for Steve is does he disallow computer games, portable game players, iPods, MP3 players or other electronic devices that could serve as unnecessary distractions?  Since there is not a TV in their home, I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer was yes.